The university today received $37,000 in tax benefits under a part of the federal tax code that gives tax breaks to businesses, architects and contractors that build or renovate buildings to be more energy efficient.

“UF has secured more than $135,000 of savings, including today’s announcement, and we expect additional savings to be announced in the coming months,” Curtis Reynolds, vice president of business affairs at UF, said in a news release.

UF has made energy savings one of its top priorities, Reynolds said. It has designed many of its newer buildings and recent renovations of existing buildings with the goal of saving energy and getting LEED certified.

The 2005 Energy Policy Act created the 179D deduction, which allows up to $1.80 per square foot on new or retrofitted energy efficient buildings put in use between Jan. 1, 2006 and Dec. 31, 2013. Government entities like UF don’t pay taxes, but under a special rule they can designate the benefit to a tax-paying “designer” and receive savings in return for the allocation, Reynolds explained in a news release.

UF hired Efficiency Energy out of Denver, Colo., in 2013 to administer its 179D program to claim any savings it can. Even though the program has expired, it still applies to projects completed between 2010 and 2013.

The U.S. Senate is considering extending the program for 2014 and 2015.